"We resolve to continue Efua's work to make the world a safer place for girls and women. Her legacy - an unstoppable movement to empower girls and realise their rights - is gathering pace each day," said Joanne Hemmings, The Girl Generation's deputy programme director.

"HEARTBROKEN"

Campaigners took to twitter to pay tribute to Dorkenoo's "grace and guts" in her advocacy work which had seen her receive death threats.

Leyla Hussein, an FGM survivor and one of Britain's most outspoken campaigners, tweeted: "Devastated and heartbroken ... I'm lost for words. Hurting deeply."

FGM activist Hibo Wardere added: "We will make sure we carry on where you left and make (you) so proud of us all."

Dorkenoo, who was born in Ghana in 1949, first became aware of the terrible impact of FGM on women's lives while working as a midwife in Britain.

In 1983 she set up the charity FORWARD which helped break the wall of silence around FGM. She was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) by the Queen in 1994.

The following year she moved to the World Health Organisation's headquarters in Geneva where she helped introduce FGM onto the agendas of government health ministries.

Dorkenoo, a public health expert, was an honorary senior research fellow at the School of Health Sciences at City University, London.

She is also the author of a book Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation, The Practice and its Prevention (1994) which received international attention.

Dorkenoo died on Saturday following treatment for ovarian cancer. She was 65 and leaves a husband and two sons.

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